Hallelujah
by angel-karai
Summary: Alex prays. Songfic. Oneshot. Review please.


The moonlight was beautiful. It shone on everything: the brick walls, the stone pavement, the quiet people. Alex Rider was one of those quiet people. From somewhere in the back streets of Chelsea, the faint strains of a guitar could be heard.

Well I heard there was a secret chord  
That David played and it pleased the Lord  
But you don't really care for music, do you?

Alex pulled his black suit jacket tighter around his shoulders. He was wearing a black T-shirt, jeans and trainers. The muscular teenager was heading for Saint Mary's church. His Uncle Ian had shown him it once when they'd gone for a day out in London, when he'd still been alive.

Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth  
The minor fall and the major lift  
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Alex sighed deeply as he pushed open the Church's heavy oak doors. There were only three or four other people inside: a woman, about sixty, exiting the confession; an Irish man in his late twenties kneeling in the pews; a girl his age lighting a candle; an old man praying with his hands clasped and his head bowed.

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah…

Alex bowed his head slightly and knelt in the back pew. The wooden floor was painful underneath his knees, but Alex ignored it. He couldn't put the prayer bench down. He didn't want comfort, something to ease the pain.

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof  
You saw her bathing on the roof  
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you

Alex looked up at the Virgin Mary in the stained-glass window above the church altar. She looked down at him, palms pressed together and a small oval halo above her head. She was smiling peacefully, watching the people praying in the Church below.

And she tied you to her kitchen chair  
She broke your throne and she cut your hair  
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Alex clasped his hands tightly together, feeling tears prick at the back of his eyes. He bowed his head, his eyes sliding gently shut.

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah…

_Our father, who are in heaven_, Alex began, hallowed be thy name. _Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Forever and ever, Amen._

Baby I've been here before

I've seen this room and I've walked this floor,

I used to live alone before I knew you

Alex found tears on his cheeks as he repeated the prayer that he had been taught at Brookland Comprehensive. The school he could never go back to, the friends he could never see again.

And I've seen your flag on the marble arch

And love is not a victory march

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Alex swallowed and bowed his head once more. _God_, he said silently, _I need help_.

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah...

_I'm a spy. I get people to trust me and then betray them. People have been killed because of me. There are times when I feel like jumping off the top of Tower Bridge, just to get it over with. I don't want to die in a foreign country by someone else's hand. _

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah...

A tear was trickling down his cheek, the water creating a slow trail behind it. Alex reached up with one shaking hand and roughly wiped it away.

Maybe there's a God above  
But all I've ever learned from love   
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you

_They won't leave me alone_, he whispered in his mind. _I tell them to stop, but they just can't let me go. They keep telling me I'm their best agent but I'm not. If I want to kill myself, how can I be their best? _

And it's not a cry that you hear at night  
It's not somebody who's seen the light  
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

_I keep trying to run away from it but they follow me. They tell me spying is in my blood, that's it's a part of me. My dad and Uncle Ian…they weren't blackmailed into being recruited. They went willing. It's not a part of me if I don't want to do it. _

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah…

_Please, show me a way to stop them. Amen. _Alex lifted his head, swallowing hard. He stood, stretching out his knees. They were sore and aching but he ignored the pain.

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah…

Alex walked down the aisle and picked up a candle. He lit it and placed it down before slowing turning and walking back down the aisle. He opened the doors and slipped out, leaving the quiet church in favour of the bustling streets.

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Maybe God would help him. Maybe he wouldn't. _Maybe there's no God after all_, Alex Rider thought sadly and pulled his jacket tighter around him as he strolled down a silent Chelsea back street, moonlight shining down on him.

&$&

Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley  
PS: I cut out one verse.

R&R please.  
x A-K x


End file.
